NEW @ TOOBWORLD CENTRAL

The latest arrivals for the Toobworld DVD collection were on my doorstep yesterday, waiting for me to wake up from nappies. And one of the boxes contained a very nice bonus!

"The Last Unicorn"
The animated film from the early 1980s which featured the voices of Alan Arkin, Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, Angela Lansbury, and Christopher Lee. I picked this up for my 2½ year old nephew.

"Shirley Temple's Storybook Collection" - two boxed sets
Not exactly sure which volume is considered "One" and the other as "Two", but one holds six episodes of her anthology TV show and the other has five episodes.

VOLUME ONE
"The Princess And The Goblins"
"Madeline"
"Winnie The Pooh"
"Babes In Toyland"
"Pippi Longstocking"
"Kim"

VOLUME TWO
"The Terrible Clockman"
"The House With The Seven Gables"
"The Land Of Oz"
"The Reluctant Dragon"
"The Little Mermaid"

I have no memories of this show at all; I only know it from references and photos in my many books on the early days of TV. I imagine that it must be a percursor in many ways to Shelley Duvall's 'Fairy Tale Theater' from the 1980s.

But no matter the quality of the recording or the special effects, I think many of the episodes will qualify as the official versions of these classics for Toobworld. (I'm most excited about seeing this version of the "Oz" story!)

Among the actors involved are Jonathan Winters, Martin Landau, Agnes Moorehead, Mel Blanc, Arthur Treacher, Frances Bergen, Sterling Holloway, Ben Blue, Joseph Wiseman, Michael Rennie, Alan Napier, Ann Jillian, Billy Gilbert, Imogene Coca, Jane Rose, John Raitt, Jonathan Harris, Alice Pearce, Robert Culp, Jerry Colonna, Carl Ballantine, Joe Besser, Ray Kellogg, Angela Cartwright, Willard Waterman, Ted de Corsia, Eric Portman, Sam Jaffe, Jacques Aubuchon, J. Pat O'Malley, Nancy Kulp, Nina Foch, Ray Walston, John Hoyt, Mary Wickes, the Bil and Cora Baird puppets, and Shirley Temple herself.

For a fan of character actors like m'self, there are quite a few treasures in that list!

Now, the bonus was a DVD of Shirley Temple's first films, "The Early Years". These are seven short films she made in 1932, like "Pollytix In Washington", "Kid In Africa", and "War Babies". There's no mention on the invoice that I was getting it; I know I wasn't charged for it.

Woohoo! Freebie!

BCnU!
Toby OB